President Barack Obama will speak before a joint session of Congress tonight at 7 to announce plans for a new economic stimulus and jobs creation plan.

The unemployed say yes. Some business leaders say no. Economists are skeptical -- but say something must be done to encourage consumers to buy and employers to hire before the nation slips into another recession.

President Barack Obama intends to try.

Alarmed by persistent unemployment and signs that the economic recovery has stalled, Obama will address a joint session of Congress at 7 tonight to propose ways to help the jobless and reward the businesses that hire them, while also pouring money into construction to get the economy moving again.

Q: What's the president proposing?

A: Obama is expected to seek a $300 billion jobs package to put money in the hands of the unemployed and expand or repair schools, roads and bridges. It's a smaller version of the $787 billion stimulus plan he pushed through Congress in 2009 but more strategically targets job creation in a way that partially pays for itself and may attract Republican support.

The president is expected to reiterate his call for creation of an "infrastructure bank," using federal seed money to provide loans or issue bonds to encourage companies to invest in construction work, an important factor in hard-hit places such as Florida,where the unemployment rate is mired at 10.7 percent.

Obama contends that an infrastructure bank would spur private investment, not just soak up taxpayer dollars. Republicans, however, remain scornful.

"We need an infrastructure bill. But one of the many sad things about the president is the fact that he blew all the money we had -- and a whole lot more -- on all these so-called 'shovel-ready' stimulus projects," said U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Miami. "I'll be curious to find out where he takes the money from to fund these new things."

Q: How would he help the unemployed right now?

A: While hoping to create jobs, the president will propose an extension of emergency unemployment benefits -- now due to expire at the end of the year -- through 2012, knowing this money would be immediately spent on rent, food and other goods, which would in turn boost small businesses.

"That would help. If you don't have money coming in, you can't even afford to look for a job," said Robert Jenne, 48, of Lauderdale-By-The-Sea, who got a job last week selling playground equipment after being unemployed for two years. "A lot of people now have to make choice: Am I going to eat today or put gas in my car to look for a job?"

The unemployed say these benefits are a lifeline while they look for work.

"They need to put some money out there so people can get a jump start," said Linda Alling, 56, of Geneva, who exhausted her unemployment benefits after being laid off from a construction job in 2008. "It would help the people who were forgotten, the thousands who couldn't find anything in the work force."

Q: Any help for homeowners in this plan?

A: The White House has not disclosed details, but Obama is reportedly considering a plan to allow struggling homeowners to refinance loans through Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae on homes now worth less than the size of their mortgages. That could boost Florida's devastated housing market, though Realtors and lenders say previous mortgage-modification plans have had very limited impact.

Q: Did the first stimulus bill help Florida?

A: Yes and no. The flow of $24 billion to the state, some of it unspent, provided a safety net for the unemployed and broke the fall of the economy. It saved thousands of jobs in Florida, mostly in schools and government work. But it failed to prompt widespread hiring in private industry.

Florida's recovery has been slow and painful, with 85,000 jobs gainedthrough the first part of this year, much of them in tourism as Americans took vacations again. But the growth stalled during the summer, and Florida lost 22,000 jobs in July.

Nearly a million Floridians are still looking for work. Unemployment is almost one percentage point lower than a year ago but 1.6 points higher than the national rate of 9.1 percent.

Q: Why would Republicans support this plan any more than the last stimulus bill?

A: So far they don't. But Obama will include items that may appeal to them, notably tax credits for businesses that hire workers.

U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation, has proposed something similar.

"That is something I agree with," West said. "But we can't talk about hundreds of billions more in government spending. That's going in the wrong direction. We don't need the Son of Stimulus. This theory of centralized government spending just is not working."

Obama also is expected to ask for an extension of the cut in Social Security payroll taxes paid by employees, which went from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent through this year.